


Vs. Balor of the Evil Eye

by ToraRyusei



Series: Fire [3]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 18:48:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15030992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToraRyusei/pseuds/ToraRyusei





	Vs. Balor of the Evil Eye

Sparks added to the flame. Sharp lines carved to the wooden floor around the two combatants, scars from their swords being dragged along the ground as they meet to swing again. A towering man cloaked in black, a being of shadows who seemed to not so much as struggle swinging his blade, a sword as tall as himself. His opponent, a man with the essence of a beast, repelling each blow with aching muscles as his mind tried with failing dexterity to provide a way to fight back against the onslaught of blows which sent tremors down to his bones. His bronze sword, changing shape through a connection with its wielder, parried and guarded, cleaved and lunged, yet not a single blow would reach his target. For every retaliation he could muster, there were countless swings with the strength to split him with a cruel ease.

All around them were flames which sealed any chance of escape. A hellish cell that assured even a victory might not assure survival, and that if Takii sought to bide his time, he might face immolation. The library’s structure was slowly but surely being eaten away by the flames, and soon it would collapse upon the two combatants. Even then, Balor would not cease. He was at home amongst the destructive chaos, for it was his eye which brought it all forth. An eye which helped chip away at Takii’s endurance, as he projected a golden aura around himself to keep the eye from reducing him to ash.

 

Even in this hopeless battle, he persevered. He would sacrifice stamina in exchange for an opportunity to see Balor slip up, to recognize a pattern in his swings and punish the repetition.

There it was, a delay in his winding up of the blade gave him a split-second chance to strike Balor with a hit to cripple the giant. His sword became a four-pronged spear, branches with ends just as sharp as the main tip of the lance itself. It thrust itself forward in that opening. Yet, Balor’s eyes would remain passively trained on Takii.

 

 _At last, a break in the monotony._ Balor’s thoughts voiced in Takii’s head.

 

Balor shifted ever so slightly in his footing, and thus the spear beautifully missed its target. Only one of the prongs would pierce through the dreaded Fomor King’s cloak and to the flesh beneath, but there was not so much as a grunt from the wounded Balor. He used the opportunity to secure the spear between his arm and side for a solitary moment, as a third ring of his crown was broken. Takii’s spear receded back into the form of a blade, as he breathlessly exclaimed a half-uttered profanity. A blast of heat radiated from Balor’s evil eye, but now it had something more mixed into it.

 

It was a scent Takii was familiar with. Of death and decay, Balor’s eye did more than turn all in its sight to ash, it would extinguish even the ash itself. He could only now fully understand the gap in power that eye gave the Fomor King, that if he were to remove the four rings left that sealed his eye, it would leave nothing of this place, of Takii.

Death. Instant. Never had his life felt so fragile, for there had always been a chance he could fight back, overcome adversity. No, if Balor wanted not even Takii’s aura could protect him from the Evil Eye’s full power.

 

No, he couldn’t think like that.

If he fell into despair now, he wouldn’t even have a chance of reaching the point of witnessing the full might of Balor’s Evil Eye. He had managed a wound on him, albeit a minor one. All he had to do was exploit that weakness, and stop him before he could release the rest of the seals.

_Such tenacity. For a moment, I thought you had surrendered to the terror as many have before you._

Balor taunted him. That’s right, Balor had slain scores of humans before, and driven even more to hopelessness by the thought of standing beneath his deadly gaze. But it was the legend itself that told of his demise by a spear through that very same eye.

“Guh—” He felt a part of his midsection crack. Balor’s arm hit him in the side like a tree trunk, and before he could even register the blow he was flying across the library to collide with one of the bookshelves currently aflame.

 

That’s right. Even without its full power, Balor’s eye took a toll on his body. It slowed him down, to the point where even his senses weren’t exempt. Falling shakily to his feet, Takii steeled himself as the shadowy giant lurched forward to corner him. Takii escaped deftly as Balor’s sword made a horizontal cut through the row of flames.

Focus, he would focus every ounce of his aura on protecting him from the eye’s effects. His chance would come soon, he had to believe that. Pillars bathed in flame fell from the ceiling, Takii dove beneath them in the hopes they might slow down Balor’s pursuit, but the Fomor King charged forth unabated, the flames seemed afraid to even singe his cloak.

Turning around, he was already there. For an instant, a wild grin rose up on Takii’s face. Balor’s sword was coming down on him, but the Tiger was ready. His blade was lighter, faster, Takii’s bronze sword rose up and became a claymore in an instant, already carrying a momentum that surpassed Balor’s. A long vertical slash along the body of the giant. Surely, this would be his victory.

 

But, he had celebrated too soon. For an instant, his vision became blurry, and there a gap in his defenses was created. Hot sensation ran down his left shoulder down to the right side of his waist, followed by an excruciating pain as blood spilled forth. He screamed, yet he couldn’t even hear his own cries. Balor hadn’t stopped the descent of his blade, and Takii hadn’t even seen it coming. Surely he would have been able to avoid it…

_I was waiting for you to slip again._

Balor spoke as his blood-stained sword of obsidian and barbs let its point crash to the floor.

_You’re going blind in your left eye, aren’t you?_

Snap. Seems the Fomor King wouldn’t be allowing the Tiger to rest. Though he had returned the favor, the wound Balor suffered was too deep. He needed to end this now, to assure himself that Takii would not survive.

_That was how I could hit your side. You hadn’t even noticed. Luckily, I did._

Takii fell to his knees, his sword helping keep him from falling completely over. He was losing blood, fast. His mind was fading, and he couldn’t even see properly. The control he had over the mirror subsided with his dwindling concentration, and his trusted blade Fang vanished, replaced with a mirror shard that dug into his palm with a sense that it might cut fully into it with how hard he gripped it.

The fourth seal had been broken, and Balor’s eye began to eradicate all in its sight. The library did not burn, but was _erased_ as if it had never even been here. No trace, no dust, it was broken down to its most basic origin and then became nothing. Takii could feel that influence on him too, he didn’t have the strength to fight back—to struggle any longer.

Well…At least he got even with Balor. An eye for an eye, as they say.

…The mirror burned with the heat still in the air. It seemed to call for him. That there still might be a chance.

“Yeah…An eye for an eye.” He gripped the shard tighter. Someone had once told him, to become stronger means to sacrifice something. There’s no proper gain without relinquishing something in return. If he was going to lose it anyways…it might as well serve as a step towards greater power. Towards a chance at survival. Balor said it himself, this mirror can do more than just summon the past.

Wet, slick pop. He immediately felt mad for attempting it, no, that’s wrong. He’d gone mad from the pain of his wound, and now even jabbing the mirror shard into his left eye only carried with it a certain numbness.

For the first time, Balor’s voice did not echo through his mind, but was delivered to his ears. It was a hushed intake of air, not believing the Tiger’s insane gamble. Yet, it worked.

The mirror’s power melded with him. His sight returned, and with it he was granted _that_ power, the one he had struggled to overcome the entire fight.

The Evil Eye.  邪視

Power of erasure met erasure. They collided and negated each other, leaving only an unsettling stillness of void between two of the same power, never meant to exist together. Balor hesitated, his power had been copied, never in his life would he think someone else might burden themselves with the destructive might of the Eye. It was that momentary, fraction of a second that allowed Takii to leap with strength he didn’t even have, and sink his claws right into Balor’s Evil Eye. The crown was irrevocably shattered, the seals released, but before the eye could unleash its full destructive might, he ripped out the mirror shard embedded within the giant’s head.

 

No blood was spilled. Instead, shadows receded as his cloak became mere wisps in the air, the rest of him soon followed as the shard which anchored him to the present was taken from him. Despite that, Balor smiled a wicked grin.

_Relish…for this is the victory you’ve obtained. One grasped with all of your might. Watch now as they call you monster, your beloved humanity will see the real you. Then…you will remember my words…Tiger King._

With that final message, the Fomor King was no more. It could not be called a death, at least Takii would think as much. He stood there now, in front of where Balor once was. It all felt like a nightmare now, in the midst of a partially smoldering library, its entire front entrance completely gone from the effects of Balor’s eye. His new power, his Evil Eye, burned hot and felt as if it might vaporize whatever it laid its eyes on, so he looked to the ground.

A pool of blood at his feet. His wounds were grave, and he needed a way to patch himself up before he lost consciousness. It was impressive however he hadn’t passed out yet, considering the amount of blood on the floor. It had even began to trail, forward, where…

 

A corpse laid.

The body of the man Balor had possessed.

That’s right. So caught up in making it out alive that he had forgotten the code he lived by. His desperation to overcome Balor had blinded him to the fact that there was someone here who needed saving, and now.

He had broken his promise, to never kill a human being. All too quickly, he realized the horror of his actions.

He’d finally become what he feared. A monster.

 

“Well done, Takii-kun. You’ve saved us a lot of trouble. Ah, though now we’re going to have to pull that thing out of your head.”

Whose voice was that…? It sounded familiar, but upon hearing that voice, he could only feel dread. Takii couldn’t even turn and see who it was, as he finally collapsed.


End file.
